EAGLE EYE Written by John Glenn & Travis Wright
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EAGLE EYE Written by John Glenn & Travis Wright March 28, 2007 FADE IN: EXT. DESERT DUNES - DAWN CLOSE ON A WOODEN STICK-FIGURE TOY, held by a SIX YEAR OLD BOY. Another BOY grabs the toy away and RUNS OFF, laughing -- CHILDREN are playing under a cluster of date palms, part of a small desert commune somewhere in the Middle East. Their MOTHERS, veiled in black, gather and talk. Bearded, turbaned MEN carrying AK-47's argue politics. A domestic, even tranquil scene of life in another part of the world... EXT. DESERT ROAD - CONTINUOUS A CARAVAN of VEHICLES RACE DOWN A HIGHWAY:. SUV's mounted with surface-to-air RPG's form a protective cordon around a BLACK MERCEDES. As the cars ROAR INTO LENS, we go.to: EXT. RIDGE ABOVE ROAD - DAWN POV THOUGH A LONG-RANGE SCOPE: the caravan as seen by a TWO- MAN SPECIAL OPS TEAM perched on a ridge. As the LEADER surveils the cars, his partner finishes assembling a two-foot UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), rigging it with EXPLOSIVES: SPECIAL FORCES LEADER We have visual onthetarget. Confirm 'go' for UAV launch. INT. PENTAGON - JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER - NIGHT SUPER: "JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER, THE PENTAGON" Sat-feeds monitor the caravan. Military brass observes: SECRETARY OF DEFENSE GEOFF CALLISTER (50's, African American; eyes with soul and a wary intelligence). Beside him: COLONEL THOMPSON (Full-Bird, decorated). COLONEL THOMPSON Alpha One, you're confirmed 'go': active UAV at GPS papa, zulu, three, zero. EXT. RIDGE ABOVE ROAD - DAWN The Ops Team activates a remote transmitter, LAUNCHING the UAV into the sky like a small ROCKET -- amazingly, its silent. INT. PENTAGON - JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER - CONTINUOUS An airborne feed from the UAV shows it descending on the caravan. A PENTAGON TECHIE manipulates a JOY STICK, controlling the drone from 6500 miles away: PENTAGON TECHIE #1 We have system control. 3/28/07 2 CONTINUED: COLONEL THOMPSON Activate laser mic. EXT. SKIES OVER DESERT - CONTINUOUS DRONE POV: tracking the caravan, singling out the MERCEDES. The drone emits a THIN LASER BEAM that hits its rear windshield -- INT. THE PENTAGON - JOINT OPERATIONS CENTER - DAY Over speakers, VOICES speak "Balochi." A TRANSLATOR listens: CALLISTER Is it him? TRANSLATOR Four males, one of them's speaking with a.. I think it's a Rakhshani•dialect, consistent with our intel on Al=Khoei. COLONEL THOMPSON Gimme voiceprint analysis. The screen pops to an AUDIO WAVEFORM of the conversation. VOICEPRINT ANALYSIS finishes, the; screen shows a FILE PHOTO of a BEARDED MAN: "37% PROBABLE MATCH = ID AL-KHOEI." CALLISTER I'm not taking 37% to-the President... John, weigh in here? He looks to a plasma: the PRESIDENT'S CABINET is assembled via teleconference from the White House Situation Room: DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE CIA and NCTC concur this is the target based on reliable Intel from the Brits. WHIP TO another monitor: the caravan starts to VEER off- road. TECHIE Sire they're pulling off the highway. TECHIE #2 We have abort recommendation. The ANALYSIS ARRAY reads: "RECOINDATION: ABORT MISSION." The source of this recommendation, for now, remains a mystery. COLONEL THOMPSON If it's him, this guy comes out of hiding once in a lifetime, we can't let him go. CALLISTER (beat, torn) Alright, stay with him... 3/28/07 3 CONTINUED: THE SATELLITE VIEW shows the caravan approaching the commune. EXT. DESERT COMMUNE - DAY Mothers grab up their children and pull them aside as the vehicles arrive. ARMED MEN emerge... INTERCUTTING - THE PENTAGON OPS ROOM: the computer pinpoints DOTS on the satellite feed that represent WEAPONRY on-site - - TECHIE We've got AK-47's, RPC's, Chaparral guided missiles -- COLONEL THOMPSON Looks like a training camp. THE DESERT: Bodyguards cluster around a TURBANED:MAN as he emerges from the Mercedes. It looks a lot like the man from the file photo, but the beard makes it hard to confirm. MID-AIR WITH THE UAV: It SWOOPS, targeting the man -- SNAP: THE PENTAGON: a BLURRY SNAPSHOT of his FACE appears. A DIGITAL WIRE-FRAME is overlaid on the man's face: "5I$ PROBABLE MATCH - INSUFFICIENT DATA. RECOMMENDATION: ABORT MISSION." TECHIE 51%. 'Abort' rec holds. THE DESERT: Now our guy DISAPPEARS into the crowd as they begin MOVING toward a large WOODEN PLANK on the desert floor. Some of the men take hold of the plank, drag it back to reveal... a PIT. THE PENTAGON: SAME IMAGE in real-time on the feeds: CALLISTER What is that, a weapons cache? ANALYST Sir, the placement of stones around the pit, markers for the Five Pillars of Islam... I think it's a funeral. Everyone trades looks -- this just got even more complicated. THE DESERT: from the back of a TENTED TRUCK, a BODY is lifted, shrouded in white. The men carry it through blowing sand... the procession stopping at the pit. They begin lowering the body... THE PENTAGON: on monitors, a section of the GENEVA CONVENTION SCROLLS: TECHIE Sir, striking a funeral would put us in violation of the Geneva convention. 3/28/07 4. CONTINUED: COLONEL THOMPSON Once this guy's gone, he's gone. The PENTAGON GENERAL COUNCIL pipes in -- PENTAGON GENERAL COUNCIL "Hors de Combat" -- legally we'd be open to international prosecution. But we have no independent intel verifying it's in fact a funeral, and the presence of weapons certainly leaves room for interpretation. TECHIE #2 I have POTUS calling from Air Force One. CALLISTER (a beat, looks around). Everyone agree this is the best course of action? No one dissents. Callister picks up: CALLISTER (CONT'D) Mr. President, we have.a.51% identity match on Majid Al-Khoei. There is some possibility he's at a funeral, but we don't know. Regardless, counsel thinks we can claim 'Overriding Legal Authority.' Also, you should be aware we have an abort recommendation, but your cabinet, the Speaker, the Joint Chiefs urge a 'go.' THE PRESIDENT (V.0.) You left yourself out of the lineup. Callister pauses. AS THE MESSAGE ON THE MONITOR STARTS BLINKING: "ABORT, ABORT, ABORT..." CALLISTER Yessir... we gauge our strategy by two standards: the highest probability of success with the least amount of collateral damage. At 51% probability, we don't have either one. GENERAL THOMPSON And if it is Al-Khoei and he walks, Sir, we're putting our people at risk. There's a long silence as the President considers. 3/28/07 5. CONTINUED: ( 2) THE PRESIDENT (V.0.) I respect your caution, Geoff, but we won't get another chance like this... you have a green light. Callister's obviously opposed, but he bites his tongue: CALLISTER Understood. (hangs up) We're weapons free. And with deadly calm, Techies execute orders into-headsets: TECHIE TECHIE 2 -- Switching to Tac-2, -- MTS active, painting the acquisition's good -- target -- EXT. DESERT - FUNERAL - DAWN The women begin to SING the "Nasheen," a.funeral song praising Allah. The beautiful VOICES grow until all other sound is GONE. DRONE POV: the feed from the CAMERA INSIDE THE NOSE-CONE as it LAUNCHES its missile -- it ZOOMS toward the funeral gathering -- The haunting, beautiful voices WAIL... in the moment before impact, we see: birds flying across the great plain... a herd of running gazelles... the DESERT WIND blankets a layer of sand over the shrouded body in the pit... a CHILD'S HAND grasping his mother's... A WHITE FLASH AS THE MISSILE HITS: HOLD IN WHITE: CREDIT SE UENCE: WORDS CLOSE UP... a digitized electronic scan, as if they're being analyzed by someone: "We the people of the United States... more perfect union..." Highlights of The Constitution, The. Declaration of Independence... We land on: "...whenever any form of government becomes destructive...it is the right of the people to alter it or to abolish it..." CLOSE IN on these last words: "ABOLISH IT." WHITEWASH: INT. BACK ROOM - NIGHT We're looking at a DIGITAL TIMER ticking down crucial seconds -- then a MAN's FACE, intense, focused on something below screen: this is JERRY SHAW, 30, handsome, roguish. Somewhere between an adult and a child -- under his breath: JERRY damnit... 3/28/07 6. CONTINUED: VOICE (O.S.) You gotta make a choice. You gotta move-- JERRY -- I know. VOICE (O.S.) Now. Who are you gonna be? So Jerry makes his move, which we see is SLAMMING down a PLAYING CARD representing a group of DWARVES. He sits across from KWAME, 17. They're playing a geeky role-playing CARD and DICE game, CASH on the table. JERRY KWAME there. Dwarves?: Bullshit -- Bullshit? I just blocked your ass and attacked with (checks card) Ancient Mastery points. --.dwarves don't have that -- -- read the oracle text, my friend. -- shit A thick-mascara/black lipstick BECKY enters, removing her SMOCK: BECKY You know what would be great? If you guys took a longer break. That'd be awesome. JERRY Hey, Becky? When're you going to start wearing makeup? Kwame laughs as Becky tosses her smock at Jerry: BECKY .The collator's broken. JERRY Dude: no its not. BECKY (putting on a jacket) Oh yeah it is, dude! She heads out as Jerry collects the cash. Kwame puts on his own smock as Jerry offers him a quick lesson: JERRY Your first mistake? Underestimating dwarves. Power can come from anywhere -- tomorrow night I'll give you first roll and a bonus pack if y-- 3/28/07 7. CONTINUED: ( 2) KWAME I'm not gonna be here tomorrow, remember? I'm going to Cornell. And Jerry stops. A hit to the solar plexus. Wherever we are, this kid's off to a bright future.